The Idea that oppressed Muslim women want greater integration is a liberal assumption more dangerous than any Anti-immigration rhetoric
On the 10th December 2016, the UK Mirror Newspaper published a report by British-born Asian Muslim Saira Khan who says she has watched with growing alarm the spread of ethnic minority ghettos in the UK. She thanked Dame Louise Casey for her report (spanning a year long study) which among many issues, revealed that many women are denied their Human Rights in the UK, she welcomed a greater focus on integration over immigration issues as a means to rescue women from social exclusion or abuse.
Comment:
Year after year there are ever repeating liberal spokespersons who deem it their moral duty to take up the cause of the ‘oppressed’ Muslim women and they always echo the same worn out phrases of ‘integration’ and ‘empowerment’. It has become a popular political tactic to use Muslims as turncoats to sell the failed solutions to fellow Muslim women who have far more subtle and specific needs. Women are oppressed and abused in every society internationally. All global political structures value monetary gains over human rights issues and have objectified and belittled the status of women and motherhood. The dual standards of equality on paper and inequality (In job wages, social expectations and safety, career prospects, and body image….) in practice are suffered BY ALL WOMEN not only Muslim women. In that regard the idea that Muslim women will somehow be spared the injustices of Capitalist laws and double standards that change according to the political trends of the time, is utter nonsense! The second-hand fraud of greater Integration of Muslim women has been advertised to us in various dazzling packages but we are consistently not buying it – Why? The reason is that Muslim women know that if they face abuse it is not to do with the Islamic practices that are detailed in Quran and Sunnah, but it is due to the lack of implementation of Islamic Law comprehensively and completely. As such, why would we identify with an ideological viewpoint that itself allows the abuse of those very values that we hold dear. Freedom of speech Laws criminalize Anti-Semitic actions or speech but allows insulting the Prophet Mohammad ﷺ. Muslim women are socially punished for dressing in Hijab and Jilbab as Islamophobic sentiment is widespread and normalized by all sections of society. Having the Law say you are allowed to dress as a Muslim women and work, go to school etc.… does not save any of our Muslim sisters from the daily abuse and danger that they face from those that disrespect them. Even those that have done their best to integrate still face open hatred as Muslims. Allah سبحانه وتعالى in the Quran says in Surah Baqarah verse120;
وَلَن تَرْضَى عَنكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلاَ النَّصَارَى حَتَّى تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَى وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءهُم بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللّهِ مِن وَلِيٍّ وَلاَ نَصِيرٍ
“And the Jews will not be pleased with you, nor the Christians until you follow their religion. Say; “Surely Allah’s guidance, that is the (true) guidance”. And if you follow their desires after the knowledge that has come to you, you shall have no guardian from Allah, nor any helper”
(Al-Baqara, 2:120)
The real-life experience of most Muslim women, young and old, is that they are fully aware of the rights not to practice Islam, but they choose to do so of their own free will regardless of the consequences. The fact Islam is the fastest growing way of life, particularly amongst young females is testimony to the failure of liberal values to elevate women out of their subjugation and revels the empowerment that Islamic Laws truly give, that is why Muslim women support the return of the Khilafah in their millions. Muslim women should realize that chasing the ideal of salvation through integration is no more than a carrot on a stick they will never grasp. As such an illusion of success is far more dangerous that the clear agendas presented by open Islamophobic types calling for thing like Anti-immigration.
Imrana Mohammad
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir